


I fear no evil

by alphacentaur



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Humor, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 14:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19975513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphacentaur/pseuds/alphacentaur
Summary: Ellie’s life in the settlement has not always been peaceful and quiet. There are patrols to go to, infected to kill and bandits to deal with. And she’s been obsessing over Dina for years but will Dina ever reciprocate Ellie’s feelings?





	I fear no evil

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, gals and non-binary pals! This has been sitting in my desktop, glaring at me for months before I decided to do something with it. I’m really sorry for any mistakes and I hope you guys enjoy it!

Ellie could literally hear her heart drumming in anticipation. The forest was quite eerie enough in the day and in this dark moonless night, every rustle of the leaves made her jump. The cold night air lifts the ends of her hair but did nothing to calm her nerves. A faraway owl hooted in the distance and Ellie almost fell of her perch on the tree. Cursing her wary nerves, she quickly notices movement beneath her and wasn’t surprised to see a bunch of clickers blindly bumping into each other, trying to figure out the source of the noise. She looks through the trees at the deep hole in the middle of the clearing and Ellie sucks in her cheeks impatiently…any minute now.

She had hardly thought of those words when the sky is suddenly illuminated with green light. Ellie turns to see a green rocket flare burning up in the sky far away and her heart races. She quickly gets to work.

Ellie quietly attaches the phosphorus arrow head to her arrow and secures it tight. Her eyes light up in excitement and her lips turn into a gleeful smile as she nocks the arrow onto the bowstring, takes aim at the sky and releases it.

The arrow shoots towards the sky and just when it’s at the crest of its flight, it bursts into flames, hurtling down at an alarming speed right into the middle of the hole in the clearing and -

BOOM!!!!

The cherry bombs in the pit start exploding and ignite the gunpowder inside and all of a sudden, the forest is full of terrible screeches.

Ellie has to grab hold onto the tree tightly as the hundred or so clickers bump blindly into the trees and each other in their haste to reach the clearing where the bombs had managed to ignite the circle of gunpowder around the cherry bomb pit of doom. The roaring flames didn’t seem to hinder the clickers as they blindly hurtled through it to get into the pit and meet their fiery end. The air is full of their horrible screeches and the smell of burning flesh which almost makes Ellie retch. But she can’t get off the tree right now, it wasn’t safe yet. The clickers were still running towards the pit and Ellie was worried that the flames might set the nearby trees on fire too but the plan was well thought out. She herself was perched on the edge of the clearing, a good fifty yards away from the cherry bomb pit and in no danger of being on fire. Everything was going according to the plan.

The number of clickers running towards the fiery pit began to dwindle until there were a few stragglers left simply screeching and running in the clearing and Ellie couldn’t contain her excitement anymore. Pumped with adrenaline, she climbs down the tree and draws her hatchet out ready to colour it with blood. She runs towards the nearest clicker and chops its head clearly off its shoulder as people start emerging from the forest and attack the rest.

After a few more minutes of merciless hacking, Ellie along with the others slowly drag the dead infected into their fiery grave. Joel is standing a few feet away, rummaging in his backpack as Ellie approaches him.

“You did good kid”, he says gruffly and Ellie softly chuckles. That’s probably the highest compliment she could get from him. Joel takes out the flare gun from his backpack, aims at the sky and shoots. This time it’s blue.

“That should signal Tommy and the others it’s safe to bring in the horses and the materials. We’ve got a long night ahead of us kid”, he says as they both look at the slow burning flare.

“Well we’ve got the whole lot of them this time”, says old Barney, a plump little man with a balding head and a goatee who was trying to rub off the soot from his tortoise shelled glasses. “The other end of the lake is finally ours now so we don’t have to constantly look over our shoulders every time we’re down there”, he says finally putting on his glasses which now were even sootier. 

“It’s too early to say that Barney. We haven’t even put up the electrical fences yet and we have to build the walls too.” Joel replies.

“You worry too much Joel. Everything is going to be hunky dory.” Barney replies. Joel just lets out a sigh.

A few minutes later, the sound of heavy wagons being pulled by horses on rough uneven ground reaches them. Tommy rides up to them on his horse. 

“Did everything go alright?” he asks Joel.

“Yup”, Joel grunts as he heaves his backpack on his shoulders. “Everyone gather around!” he commands to the people and they all make their way towards them.

Tommy and Joel start dividing people into groups of fours and fives with instructions on what exactly they’re supposed to do. Every group has to help build the fence at the designated areas but still keep an eye out for any infected loitering around. The whole area had been canvased enough times to know that it was only inhabited by the infected. Bandits seldom came through this part of the forest. It was important to completely take hold of the lake as it might encourage them to encroach in these areas.

After receiving the instructions, Ellie slowly makes her way towards the wagons with the rest of them to find her favorite horse. She spots the beautiful chestnut still tied to a wagon and approaches the old lady unloading the wagon’s contents.

“Is it okay if I take Miss Mona with me?” Ellie asks.

“Sure dear”, the old lady replies, her eyes twinkling kindly. “Where’s your group headed?” she asks.

“Up north”, Ellie replies as she quickly removes the harness from the wagon and puts a saddle on the horse. She then pets the mare’s head and feeds her some carrots. “You’re alright Mona”, she says to her and isn’t really surprised when she starts smelling fresh horse dung. “Well if you’re done with your business then I guess we can move along” she says and she gets up on the horse and follows Joel up north with the others.

***

Ellie glares at the sun and the sun glares right back. She couldn’t believe it could get this hot and stuffy so early in the morning. Her group had worked all night, constantly alternating between building the fence and guarding the area itself. It was menial work that could have been more interesting if there were some infected around to kill but they didn’t come across any. The plan had truly worked. Aching all over, Ellie makes her way towards the lake with Miss Mona, glad that she had finally been released while Joel goes back to report to Tommy about their work. She leads the horse to the lake and it gratefully starts lapping up the water into its mouth while Ellie herself washes the dirt off of her hands and face. It was only after she was done was she aware of the commotion behind her.

“I am NOT leaving her alone!”

“She’s not that hurt!”

Ellie turns around and her heart leaps. It was Dina, who was currently having a shouting match with Jesse, which wasn’t unusual at all.

“What’s going on?” Maria comes marching up to them followed by the people who had just arrived for the morning shift.

“My horse is hurt!” says Dina, her face red and her hair frizzing up in anger. “I want to take her to the stables right now and I’m not leaving her alone!”

“Alright, calm down Dina. You can take her back but how are you going to do that?” Maria asks.

“We can load the horse into a wagon”, Jesse says resignedly. “That’d be a lot of work though. And we’d need at least two horses to pull her. I can–“

“Oh no, sonny!” Barney puffs up indignantly. “You’re not wheedling your way out of this! I could’ve let you go if you weren’t only half focused on your job. We still have a lot of work to do and you’re staying back here mister! The girl can have your horse.” And with that he turns away and stomps off.

“How am I supposed to get back home?!” Jesse calls after him. “Barney!”

Maria turns towards Dina and says, “Alright you just need another horse now”. She then spots Ellie near the lake. “Why don’t you take Ellie with you? She’s got a horse.” And the next thing she knows, Dina is marching up to her and before she can even open her mouth, Ellie immediately puts her hands in the air and says, “I can come with you. I’ve just been released and I was going to head back to the settlement anyway. We just have to wait till Mona’s done drinking”

“Good”, Dina replies somewhat appeased but hands still crossed and face still red. Ellie’s trying her best not to laugh.

“So how did your horse get hurt?” Ellie asks.

“We were just patrolling near the lake when Millie tripped over a protruding root”, Dina answers.

“Wait, how are you not hurt?”

“Because that little twerp Allen was riding it! But he’s not that hurt though. Just a few scratches on his arms and he’s already been carted off to the settlement. I wanted to take Millie back too but Jesse was insisting we go back without her while someone else took care of Millie. Like I’d actually leave her behind! We were looking for another horse when Maria suggested yours.”

“Well we better hurry then”, Ellie says. Just then Miss Mona lifts her head up and tosses her mane majestically and Ellie sees that she’s done drinking. Dina then leads Ellie and Miss Mona to her injured horse. The poor mare whines piteously at them and Dina immediately tries to calm the horse down.

“We will be home soon girl”, she pacifies the horse.

Now getting Millie into the wagon was a tricky thing. First, they had to find a wagon that was big enough for her. Then an improvised harness was tied around her body and it took ten people about twenty minutes to finally get her into the wagon.

Ellie was sweating profusely from the labor. She wipes her forehead with the sleeves of her shirt. Not realizing that they were still sooty, she inadvertently smudges her forehead with soot. She then ties Miss Mona and Jesse’s gelding to the wagon and sits next to Dina in the front. Taking the reins into her hand, she gets the horses going.

Ellie couldn’t believe that she’d finally gotten Dina all to herself. Dina was beautiful, wild, carefree and a bit too passionate sometimes. She was really popular with the townspeople and it wasn’t really surprising that she was always surrounded by a gang of giggling girls everywhere she went. Ellie wondered how Jesse had even managed to ask her out when she herself couldn’t even muster the courage to go say hi, let alone ask for a date. And Dina was always either with her posse or with Jesse so Ellie never really got the chance to talk to her until now. She couldn’t believe her luck today.

Ellie brings herself to the present with a slight shake of her head. She turns the horses to the right and was surprised to see that there was smoke still coming from the west. Dina catches sight of it too and her face immediately darkens.

There was no path to follow far up here but she decides to follow the path that was taken by the others to come here last night. They occasionally pass wagons heading in the opposite direction, the people holler at them and Ellie hollers right back. The horses slowly move along, obviously tired from the work last night and Ellie decides not to push them. The ground was rough and uneven and the last thing Ellie wanted was another horse to break a leg.

“Can’t you go a bit faster?” Dina says impatiently.

“We will once we get to the forest path”, Ellie says reassuringly.

“Do you have some water with you?” Dina asks.

“Yeah, there’s some in my bag”, Ellie replies grateful that she had refilled her canteen in the lake.

Dina rummages through the contents of Ellie’s bag and takes out the canteen but also some old worn out books.

“Are these comics yours?” she enquires.

“Yeah I found them when we were out on a patrol down in the south last week. It was in an abandoned home the bandits were squatting in. We cleared them out and raided the house”, Ellie replies.

“So what’s it about?” Dina says flipping through the pages.

“I haven’t read it yet but I can tell you about the other comics I’ve read”, said Ellie and then proceeds to tell her the stories, mostly because it seemed to keep Dina distracted from worrying over her injured horse. And it seemed to be working. Dina gets more and more relaxed as the conversation flies by. The two girls chat animatedly and Ellie could tell exactly why Jesse was only half focused on what he was doing. She herself had almost gone off the path twice. Dina was that mesmerizing.

“You’ve got some soot on your face”, Dina giggles and Ellie literally feels her heart leap into her throat as Dina leans in closer and gently wipes the soot off of her face. She then leans away and Ellie lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. But as the walls of the settlement loom closer, Dina’s face grows more and more somber and then she gets quiet. Ellie falls silent too, afraid that Dina might explode into a rage again if she attempts to talk to her.

They finally go through the gates and Ellie ushers the horses towards the stables. After a good five minutes they arrive right in front of it. Dina immediately hops off and fetches Dan the stableman, losing no time in telling him that Millie was injured. Ellie prepares the harness to lift the horse and then people are summoned to lift Millie up and safely deposit her into the stable. Dan’s wife Molly insists that Dina go have breakfast while the horse is being taken care of but Dina is stubborn and will have none of it.

“Okay, alright”, says Ellie. “How about I go get you some breakfast so that you can have it here?”

“No! You don’t have to – “

“It’s alright, I will be right back”, Ellie quickly turns and walks away. She hands Miss Mona and the gelding to the stable boy. Both the horses look worn out and exhausted so they certainly deserved some rest before another nights work. Ellie hops on to another horse and rides towards the mess hall.

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes”, Rhonda the mess lady remarks at Ellie’s dirty sooty self. She’s a plump old woman with whom Ellie would sometimes trade game in exchange for free meals or some money. Ellie quickly explains the situation to her and Rhonda immediately whips up two servings of bacon and scrambled eggs and packs it carefully into a box. She even gives Ellie some orange juice and refills her canteen and soon enough, Ellie is on her way to the stables.

“How’s she doing?” Ellie asks slightly out of breath as she makes her way towards Dina who was currently sitting on a bench just outside of the barn doors.

“Wow that was real fast”, Dina says surprised. “Well, she’s got a bone bruise and it’s going to take a while for her to recover. Dan banished me outside while they work on her”.

“Right, she will be fine Dina”, Ellie smiles reassuringly and hands her the breakfast. Dina accepts it surprised that Ellie was being so empathetic. She had always thought that Ellie was a bit hard-nosed but nevertheless she was grateful of her help. Ellie plunks down next to her and for a few minutes the two girls just eat and drink in silence.

Having practically wolfed down her entire breakfast, Ellie leans back and settles to quietly watch Dina. It was remarkable how mesmerizing Dina was even though she was covered in sweat, dirt and soot. Ellie startles a little when brown eyes are suddenly on hers and she immediately blurts out, “Do you want me stay here with you?”

“Oh no Ellie, you’ve done enough already”, Dina says gratefully. “Thank you so much”, she says as she wipes her mouth on a napkin, done with her meal. “Besides you look like a mess. We’ve got another nights work so I guess you should rest”.

“I look like a mess? Look at the state of you!” she says chuckling softly but then sobers up. “Are you sure though?” she says looking straight at the swirling browns of Dina’s eyes causing a pink tint to color her cheeks. “I can stay here for a while”.

“No, Ellie. You should go”, Dina smiles and then they both get up and look at each other for a moment. Ellie hesitates but then says, “Uh, okay. I will see you around Dina”. She turns around and heads towards the gates, deciding that she should walk to her place as it was nearby. She crosses the gates and looks back one last time. Dina smiles and waves at her and she waves back. Ellie heads back home grinning like an idiot, feeling warm and fuzzy. Things were finally looking up for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this chapter! I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about Ellie and Dina since they dropped that damn gameplay trailer and my poor heart just couldn’t handle the gay. I have been obsessively reading fics since then to quench my heart but the tag seems to have been drying out so I decided to spritz it up a little. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The next chapter will be updated soon enough.
> 
> Till then come holler at me in my social medias. My DMs are open for anyone and we can talk about rainbows, dogs, unicorns…anything you like. Goodbye for now and take care!
> 
> Tumblr: @alphacentauruss


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